The money quote came at about the 4:23 mark in Latvala’s six-minute introduction of Young, when he made the somewhat oddly-worded statement:

And you know some of the best news that I’ve had in the past few weeks is when it became apparent to me that [Young is] preparing to run again.

Sen. Latvala’s remarks in their entirety can be seen in the following video [Courtesy PCREC]:

Young, for his part, appeared aged but unbowed and looked to be in remarkably better health than he did when he last addressed the PCREC at its Lincoln Day Dinner in February (another annual fundraiser put on by the PCREC). Among other remarks, Young told his audience that he had undergone back surgery, spent almost three months in the hospital, and had lost 50 pounds in weight and four inches in height (he used to be about as tall as Ronald Reagan) as a result of parts of his spine being fused. Although he walked slowly and with a thick cane, his mind appeared to be as sharp as ever. His remarks, which perhaps comprise his first campaign speech of the 2012 election season, can be viewed in their entirety in the following video [Courtesy PCREC]:

Rep. Young has been in public service as an elected official for more than half a century. He is considered by the pundits to be unbeatable in 2012, even at this early stage in the election season, barring a sudden decline in his health. The backstory of this announcement of his plans to run for his twenty-second term in Congress is that the throng of those who have long hoped and planned to take Young’s place when he leaves the political scene (Sen. Latvala is among these) did not get the news they had hoped for and will have to bide their time a bit longer. Some predict that if Young’s exit is not a “controlled crash” guided by political insiders, it will trigger one of the biggest political brawls in the history of Pinellas County politics.